Witches of East End

Freya, Ingrid, and their mother, Joanna Beauchamp, have all tried to live uneventful lives and try to to draw attention to themselves. They are all powerful witches who are forbidden to use magic by decree of the witches' council. Freya can create potions for love or heartache. Ingrid can see the future and weave knots to cure practically anything. Joanna can resurrect the dead and heal injuries. It has been so long since the ruling that the women decide to stop hiding their true selves and start practicing magic again. Freya mixes potions in the bar where she works to help her customers. Ingrid gives remedies to local women at the library on her lunch break. Joanna saves a man from death. When people start disappearing and being subject to violent attacks, the people of the town turn on the Beauchamp women and accuse them of these horrific acts. Can Freya, Ingrid, and Joanna find who the real culprit is before they relive the witch burnings of the past?

I haven't read anything else by Melissa de la Cruz, so I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading this. I really couldn't be happier with this book. The language is fluid and really sucks the reader in. The pages and time passing by are barely noticeable because I was so absorbed with the story and the characters. The beginning is fairly slow, but I don't mind this at all. The world is fully realized. The lyrical language made the beautiful setting easy to visualize. I enjoyed really getting to know the characters before the plot really took off. The three women are all strong in their own different ways and practice their own brand of magic. Freya is the most extroverted and is a big focus of the book. She is led primarily by her emotions. Her impulsive nature is shown especially when she is the first one to break the rules barring their magic use. However, Ingrid has a more quiet confidence that grows throughout the book as she regains a part of her life that she thought was lost forever. Joanna is also much more quiet, but I view her power being the greatest and most difficult to perform. These women are engaging and act as the driving force of the novel. Even though these ladies have lived for centuries, the language and their lives are entirely modern and fresh.

The only criticism I have is the ending. After everything is resolved, the conflict for the next book is already introduced. It seems really out of the blue and much different than the beautiful descriptions and slow exposition of the beginning of the novel. It really felt like an afterthought and would have been better off in the next book.

I really loved this book and I want to read the Blue Bloods series now. This novel had just the right amount of romance, mystery, magic, and mythology. I would highly recommend this to urban fantasy fans.

My rating: 4.5/5

Internet Awesomeness 7

My school is officially over until the fall!!! YAY!!! I have a lot of books to review, but right now, I'm just going to share some awesome/funny videos with you.

1) There's a really stupid "Don't Say Gay" bill that passed in Tennessee forbidding teachers from talking about homosexuality in classrooms. Because of the language of the bill, they have also inadvertently forbid discussion on reproductive disorders, anything that would lead to sterility, or abstinence. I guess it's not as bad as Florida banning sex on accident. Anyway, George Takei has a delightful way to get around saying gay: say Takei! It's disgusting to me that something like this could be passed in today's society.

2) Literary heroines would have escaped their terrible fate if they had a Sassy Gay Friend. Hilarity ensues.

3) GOOD put together this awesome montage of famous kisses throughout cinema history and included some informative information on the history and biology behind kissing. And it ends with saying Armageddon was a good movie, which is debatable.

4) This video made me die and really helped me be less stressed during finals. It's Star Wars dubbed in French and subtitled with quotes from Jean-Paul Sartre.

Bumped

In a world where people over 18 can no longer conceive children, it's the best thing in the world to be 16 and pregnant. It's practically a teenager's obligation to have children to keep the population up and give or sell their children away to older couples that can't have any of their own. Melody and Harmony are twins separated at birth and adopted by two very different families. They have different views of things. Melody's mentality coincides with much of society's: she's committed to renting out her womb to a couple for a small fortune and may possibly do this until she can no longer have children. Her twin Harmony is just the opposite. She comes from a cultish religious society called Goodside where the parents choose the children's spouses and they are expected to become parents. Harmony is horrified at society's penchant for premarital sex and the encouragement to give or sell your baby away. She visits Melody in an effort to save her and bring her back to the religious community. She isn't really prepared for greater society and gets more than she bargained for.

Bumped is a combination of satire and dystopia that isn't really balanced and doesn't work well. I didn't find it all that funny. I was more disturbed by the exaggerated oversexualization of teenage girls and society's unconcern for their true physical or mental wellbeing. I understand that the novel is a parody of our tendency to glorify teen pregnancy with shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant, but I just don't feel that it isn't as pervasive as the author wants us to think. If you watch those shows, the teen mom's lives are never easy and often times pretty miserable. Teen pregnancy is actually on the decline now. The slang wasn't hard to understand. I was expecting something in the league of the Nadsat slang of A Clockwork Orange, where I literally had no clue what was being talked about in the entire first chapter of the work. I was also really annoyed at most of the characters. Melody was super fake and mean to most of the people in her life. Harmony was also fake and spent most of the book blindly following the religion that discouraged her from asking questions or having independent thought. It was a frustrating read for me because both girls are from an oppressive society and both go a very long while without realizing it.

The strength of this book is the disturbing factor. Hearing young kids sing about sex in pretty crude language is just plain creepy. I think the most disturbing moment is a little 10 year old girl at the hospital about to have a baby. That is not right in so many ways. The girl didn't understand the gravity of the situation and it would obviously be detrimental to her physical and mental health for her to have her baby. She didn't have any choice in the situation, was probably raped, and her parents are totally ok with it. It just makes me feel dirty. This scene will stay with me for a very long time.

The state of the characters at the end of the book give me hope for the next installment. It does end abruptly, but I think I will pick up the next book. I hope Harmony and Melody keep growing and become more aware of their situations.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Internet Awesomeness 6

1) More 8in8! I finally got the player to work, so here it is if you're interested in listening to any of their songs. All are awesome, but my favorite is Because the Origami.

They donated over $22,000 to the Berkeley City Music Network in the first 2 weeks that their album has been out. Yay! And they now have their own website. AND their songs have spawned other forms of art, such as fan videos and drawings. Here are two of my favorite videos.

Because the Origami - 8in8 from Ben Jacobson on Vimeo.

Awesome stuff! I love when art spawns more art. :)

2) This video is NSFW (not safe for work), so don't blame me if it gets you in trouble. It's nominated for a Hugo Award, specifically for Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form. It's Rachel Bloom singing Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury. The song is cute, catchy, and portrays an amorous and exaggerated love for both the author and his literature. Rachel has loved Ray Bradbury's work since she was a child. She says "The No. 1 thing I am earnestly attracted to his intelligence. Writers are thus the pinnacle of intelligence. While actors are great and awesome, writers literally create new worlds from scratch. What is sexier than that? Personally, I don’t know why every person out there isn’t dating a writer." She posted the homage on his last birthday and even met him and watched the video with him since then. I dare you not to smile at this hilarious, sexy pop sci-fi song.

3) The last video for this week features President Barack Obama mercilessly mocking Donald Trump. He is surprisingly funny and makes Fox and the rest of the birthers look ridiculous. He even pokes fun at himself. This speech is only second to Stephen Colbert's speech in 2006 (part 1 and part 2 if you want to laugh hysterically).

I probably won't be posting too much over the next 2 weeks because school is almost over. One more week and then finals! Eek!

Internet Awesomeness 5: 8in8

This edition only has one awesome thing because I find it to be exceptional and in need of recognition.

Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, Ben Folds, and Damian Kulash have all joined forces to do an experiement for the Rethink Music conference. They are collaborating to write 8 songs in 8 hours together. I'm amazed and delighted by the final product, an album called Nighty Night by 8in8 (the name for their impromptu band). There are only 6 tracks on this album and it took 12 hours to do, but each and every song is exceptional. I can definitley hear that different people influenced each track more, making each song different. This project is just amazing. I can't believe that people actually criticized this group of people for this. It's an amazing project that produced a good album, mixing each persons style and voice.

I never would have thought something so cohesive and awesome could come out of something like this. Not only did they draw on each other for inspiration, but also their twitter followers, engaging in conversation and ideas for songs. If you are interested in the process at all, Amanda Palmer wrote a blog post about some of the process. The whole thing was streamed online and will be available soon to watch in an edited version. I am curious about how they got to these 6 songs and what went on in those 12 hours. You can purchase this album for only $1, cheaper than one track on iTunes, at Amanda Palmer's website. You are of course welcome to donate more if you'd like. The inital proceeds from the first 2 weeks will go to the Berkely City Music Network that helps young people reach their full musical potential. If you don't know if you want to buy it, you can listen to it streaming on the website.

You can also see 8in8's first performance band music and also some solo work on this concert the day after recording their album here. The 1 hour mark is where Amanda Palmer is introduced. The best part is 8in8 performing a mashup of Neil Gaiman's essay about Amanda Palmer's death and Ben Fold's song You Don't Know Me at All. It was so unexpected, yet fit together eerily well. The album is wonderfully performed despite their sleep deprivation. I wish I could have been there.

My favorite quote about this project comes from Amanda Palmer: "we accomplished what we actually set out to do, which was to spend time together, create something beautiful that never existed before, and see what we could do by giving ourselves a deadline, some parameters, sushi, and the ingredients for some relatively decent gin and tonics."

Modern Fairy Tale Films: Part 2

I have more awesome films to add to the list, so of course I had to do another post! This time, I features surreal fantasy mixed with science fiction.

1) Mirrormask

Mirrormask is the story of Helen Campbell, a girl who hates being in the circus with her family. She fights with her mother, as teenage girls do, but is later consumed with guilt after her mother becomes sick and needs an operation. Afterwards, she enters a fantasy world where the Queen of Light is eternally asleep and the Queen of Shadows is taking over the land in an effort to find her daughter, a doppelganger of Helen. When I first saw this film, I walked into a friends apartment and was completely spellbound by the last 20 minutes. I dropped everything I was carrying and just forgot everything else because it was so different than anything I had ever seen. The film follows a basic fairy tales hero journey where the protagonist has problems at home, goes to a fantastical world, and then returns having learned a lesson and changed for the better. This basic story line can be seen in Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. What makes this film different is the very different visuals, color scheme, soundtrack, and cast of characters. The world in the film isn't entirely benevolent, with man-eating sphinxes, the Queen of Shadows, and her creepy minions. I would say that this film is both for adults and for children. It walks a fine line and succeeds in being relevant to both audiences. It's to be expected from the likes of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. I would recommend this film to just about anyone.

2) The City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children is a dark and surreal French film that has traits of both fantastical fairy tales and gritty dystopias. This odd pairing makes this film unique and unforgettable. It's the story of a little boy who is kidnapped by a mad scientist in an effort to slow down the aging process. This scientist is supported by his family that consists of a very small woman, 6 clones, and a sentient brain in a jar. The boy that was kidnapped was a the little brother of One, an incredibly strong, yet child-like man. He works tirelessly to save his little brother with the help of Miette, a street savvy and tough as nails orphan. My favorite part of the movie is the touching and endearing friendship between One and Miette. Both actors, Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet, are delightful and believable as an odd pair of friends: the wise beyond her years orphan and the strong yet childish man. Although there are many children present as orphans, this is not a film for children. They are used and abused by all of the adults in the film, save for One, who is largely considered an oversized child. In a way, it stays true to the classic fairy tales by virtue of the darkness it presents and how perhaps adults can fully understand them more than children. Fairy tales were not originally just for children as they are frequently thought of today. I love this film and its weird mix of steampunk, science fiction, fantasy, surrealism, and humor. This modern, urban fairy tale is not one that is easy to forget. Here is the trailer:

3) Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle is a whimsical fairy tale loosely based on the novel by Diane Wynne Jones. Sophie is a hatter who doesn't feel special in any way until a mysterious gentleman saves her from the unwanted advances of some soldiers and irrevocably involves her in his problems. She is cursed by the Witch of the Waste to be an old woman and she seeks out the mysterious man to fix her. This is only the beginning of her adventure with Howl, the demon Calcifer, and the magical castle they travel in. I don't think I'll ever be tired of this film. Magic is a huge part of the film and physical transformations almost become commonplace. The influences of classic fairy tales are visible, like the Beauty and the Beast-like relationship between Howl and Sophie or the Cinderella-esque treatment of Sophie. It all starts with Sophie wanting to be returned to herself, but it turns out to be more about saving Howl, finding power within herself, and saving their world from war than about her appearance. A big part of this story is portraying the devastating effects of war on the innocent people that are caught in the middle and how wars can turn men into monsters. This film isn't purely based in fantasy, but has touches of steampunk with the design of the castle, the many flying machines, and the Victorian style costumes. Howl's Moving Castle is visually beautiful in addition to such great story telling and characterization. It also has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. This is a performance of the theme that is present throughout the movie. Although the violinist does make some mistakes, he plays with such an exuberance and joy that it doesn't really matter.

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Go check out Fairy Tale Fortnight at The Book Rat and Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing if you love fairy tales, retellings, and adaptations.

Modern Fairy Tale Films

There are plenty of films that are retellings of fairy tales, but there are also those that create their own mythos and are widely seen as fairy tales today. Here are 3 of my favorites:

1) Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is a beautiful and dark modern fairy tale. The story is kind of a mix of Frankenstein, Peter Pan, and even Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Edward is an unfinished creation by an elderly scientist that died in the midst of his creation. Since he hasn't been exposed to the world at all, he has the mentality of a child, innocent and naive. He is taken from his dark, gothic castle on the hill and brought to suburbia, full of cookie cutter homes and pastel colors. At first, Edward is well liked and praised for his ability to cut hair and topiary, but after Edward is manipulated and he accidentally hurts someone, the town is quick to turn on him. They follow him back to his castle with figurative torches and pitchforks, demanding that he be destroyed. This beautiful and melancholy fairy tale shows how people who are different are treated in society and how if this outsider lashes out at those who abuse him, he is the monstrous one. This fairy tale is even framed by an old woman telling her granddaughter the story at bedtime, much like I'm sure many of us were read classic fairy tales. Edward Scissorhands is one of my favorite films and features the most beautiful soundtrack and style to enhance the whimsical, yet dark fairy tale atmosphere. This is my favorite scene from the film.

2) Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is the story of young Ofélia who goes to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless and unfeeling captain, in 1944 fascist Spain. In the midst of her move and getting used to living with her father, a faun lures her outside and tells her she is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna and she must complete three tasks before the full moon to be able to enter in her father's realm. This film does an amazing job of juxtaposing a dark, beautiful fairy tale world with the gritty realism of living in a war zone. The fairy tale world has its own sets of danger with creatures that eat children and even the faun seems to be less than benevolent at times. However, this world's color palate is bright and dynamic. It's the realm where anything is possible. The real world is even more dangerous. There are scenes of overwhelming brutality in the film that are stark and committed by regular humans. The color palate for this world is muted in grays and blues, but with splashes of red blood. This is obviously a fairy tale for adults despite the main character only being 10 years old. Guillermo del Toro's influences for the film ranged from Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz to the fantastical works of Jorge Luis Borges and Francisco Goya. I absolutely love this film and can't recommend it enough.

3) The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride has been one of my favorite films since childhood. It has everything: true love, sword fights, giants, miracles, revenge, treachery, torture, rodents of unusual size, and royalty. Plus just about every line is incredibly quotable. It's the story of Buttercup, a girl who is set to marry a prince she doesn't love because she believes her true love to be dead. She is kidnapped by a Sicilian and his posse who intend to murder her and frame the opposing kingdom. A mysterious man in black comes to save her and she discovers he is her true love Westley, but they are again separated by the evil prince she is betrothed to. Doesn't this sound exciting? Please, just watch it if you haven't already. This film is also framed by a bedside story as a very young Fred Savage is sick and is read this story by his kind grandfather. Throughout the film, they return to his reactions. At first he is bored and doesn't want to hear about kissing, but is eventually sucked into the story and really cares about what happens to the characters just like we are. This film has been a family tradition in my household because there is something for everyone. I think this is a truly timeless film and I can't recommend it more.

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If you like fairy tales and retellings and the like, you would love Misty and Ashley's Fairy Tale Fortnight. Every day is full of guest posts, author interviews, and book reviews. I've done 2 guest posts for the event about dark literary retellings and movie adaptations. Check it out here!